Miami Grand Prix: Top three press conference with Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

Formula 1 returned in Miami after a weeks long break, and the outcome stayed the same. Kimi Antonelli delivered again, securing a third consecutive Grand Prix victory with a controlled drive at the front.

The Mercedes driver took the chequered flag ahead of Lando Norris, who pushed throughout but could not find a way past, while Oscar Piastri completed the podium to underline McLaren’s strong showing. Parc Ferme interviews conducted by Jenson Button.

Q: Welcome to Miami, Kimi! I mean, that was a masterclass. They didn’t make it easy for you. There was a lot of great fighting out there, especially with Turn 1, but you came through in the end with a really strong victory and a great last stint.

Kimi ANTONELLI: Yeah, I mean, start was not as bad as yesterday, it was a little bit better. I didn’t expect Charles to brake that early, so to avoid him obviously I locked up and then I was a bit lucky with what happened then in Turn 2. And then I did a little mistake with the energy management trying to overtake Charles and then I lost the place to Lando. But then the pace was strong, I was able to stay close, and then the team did a great strategy. We did a massive undercut and then we managed to bring it home, even though it was not easy.

Q: I know you’re thinking about this moment in time, but today you made history: the first driver to win his first three Grands Prix from pole position, and you’re only 19. I mean, it’s so impressive.

KA: No, thank you, thank you. I mean, this is just the beginning. The road is still long, but we’re working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job. Without them I wouldn’t be here, so mainly thanks to them, to my family. And yeah, I’m going to enjoy this one and then get to work, because Canada is in two weeks’ time.  

KA: Cheers, thank you. Thank you so much.

Lando NORRIS: I mean, a mixed bag, really. We just got undercut. There’s no excuses other than that. We got undercut. We should have boxed first. Kimi did a good job. Hats off to Merc and Kimi. They drove a good race. Easy to make mistakes out there with the big braking zones and with these cars, but he didn’t make any big enough for me to capitalise on, so I have to be happy. I think as a team we have to be happy. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today, but yeah, not the pace to get back past him in the end, so we take it on the chin. But it’s still a positive weekend altogether.

LN: So-so. It was still good. I still enjoyed the racing, honestly. Some things have improved, some things are the same, but today was still about who could make the least mistakes, who could push in the correct areas. And it looked good, I guess. If you guys enjoy it, then I’m very happy. It was tough. You still have to be tactical with how you use battery. You can easily just get caught up in the wrong running of things, and I got caught out badly. But other than that, I feel like I did a good job and the team did a good job all weekend, so I have to be proud of everyone.

Q: Progress. 

LN: Progress. Thank you.

Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, definitely. It’s not been the most straightforward of weekends. I think qualifying yesterday was a bit messy for both of us, but the pace seemed more encouraging again today. And yeah, had to make a few overtakes. Obviously, the end of the race was a pretty late charge, but yeah, just very tricky around here, especially in these conditions. So, thanks to the team. Clearly, we were a step closer in performance once again, so yeah, it’s nice to see it.

OP: Yeah, definitely. I think this weekend we showed that if we get track position, we can hang on to things well. We were close in Japan, but we’ve definitely taken a step forward and hopefully in Canada we can take another step forward again. Yeah, excited for the futur

KA: Yeah, it was a good race, a very special one. It was not an easy one because I had a bit of everything. OK, the start was still not great, plus I did a mistake, then I was lucky with how things played out despite the mistake. And then, yeah, then obviously we were in a fight, me, Charles and Lando, and then I got passed by Lando, did a little mistake on energy, and then I was chasing. And then luckily the undercut worked very well, and then we found ourselves being chased. But it was not easy because Lando was quick and he was applying a lot of pressure. And I just knew I couldn’t make any mistakes.

KA: Yeah, it was very stressful because he was also sometimes on the edge of getting so many times the overtake mode. We know how powerful that is and I just knew I couldn’t make any mistakes. And it was not easy because the conditions were tricky today, with the rain that kind of cleaned a bit the rubber that was on track, and it was very slippery. So, it was not easy, but very happy that we brought it home. Of course, massive thanks to the team for the incredible job and also to my family, who was here the whole weekend.

KA: No, it didn’t really affect. I mean, just in the moment I had two, three laps where I wasn’t getting some of the downshifts, and then I had a couple of laps where it wouldn’t upshift from seventh to eighth. So, it was a little bit stressful, but luckily it was just a matter of those few laps and then it was fine. Obviously, it was adding stress because I was being chased and I knew I couldn’t make any mistakes, and that wasn’t helping for sure. But then it lasted very shortly, so I was happy with that.

Q: Final one from me. You have upgrades coming for Montreal, the next race. Just how much confidence do you have in this car now?

KA: I have really good confidence in the car. Obviously, we’re in a great momentum. Hopefully, the package is going to work as we hope, but also McLaren is bringing another package and the step they made this weekend was very big. So, we just have to keep pushing, keep raising that bar, because we saw this weekend how much it flipped compared to the first three races. So, we just got to stay on top of the game.  

Q: All right. Very well done to you. Thank you, Kimi. Lando, let’s come to you now. Career podium number 45 for you. What’s your overriding emotion after that one?

LN: I can look at it either way, I guess. I think I’m just very happy with the situation we’re in, which is we’re fighting for wins or fighting for the win today, a pole, the Sprint win. So, I think when I look at it from that side, it’s been a very strong weekend. I feel like I’ve done a very good job the whole weekend too, so there’s a lot of positives. And like they just said, we’ve improved such a big amount, and the fact we’re just fighting for a win, when, if you look at our pace in the races over the last couple, even though we were fighting for podiums and wins, and Oscar was, the pace and the speed we had was certainly not there. So, the fact we made such a big step this weekend is great to see and I’m very proud of the team. And all the work that’s been put in has paid off immediately. But you always have to look at it and ask yourself the question, do you feel like you maximised everything today? And I’m unsure about that. So, I feel like there was a chance that we could have fought better for it, just not simply letting him undercut us. I know he came and passed me on track because he had just the warmer tyres out of Turn 2, but we should have just never been in that situation in the first place. I’m not saying we would have won the race because I think Kimi drove an excellent race and his pace was very strong, especially his pace end of stints was incredibly strong. So, he might have still passed me later on in the second stint if we boxed earlier, but at least we would have given ourselves a fighting chance, and we didn’t give that to ourselves today. So, I’m a little bit disappointed by that.

LN: No, I don’t think so. I think we’re talking small margins, but his pace at the end of the stint on the Medium was a lot stronger than me, and it was impressive how good they were at the end of stint one. I think we were both pushing flat out for every stint, but he could always then stay a bit closer to me when he was behind me than I could ever kind of get to him when I was behind him. I think one of the things that made it always a little bit tough was where our strengths and weaknesses lie. We’re not good enough in the medium speed, which is Turn 4, Turn 5, Turn 6, which is the place that leads on to the longest straight and the place where you can start to make someone defend and you can start to make something happen. And because we’re too weak in the high speed, it was always too difficult to start an attack or start making him do something that could give us a better chance. So, I think we’re still missing a little bit, but it can be as little as a tenth, and a tenth isn’t a lot, but a tenth is also a lot on a day like today. So, we have to keep working hard if we definitely want the wins.

LN: I don’t know. I have to see what they said. They just said there were some issues and I had to slow down a little bit. But I was struggling with the rear the whole day today, so I don’t know what part. It kind of started to get a little bit worse. So I’m unsure. I need to go and ask the team.  

Q: OK. You didn’t get the win today, but you’ve got more upgrades coming for Montreal. Do you leave Miami feeling confident about the future?

LN: Certainly. I think you’d have to feel silly if you don’t feel confident about the future when we improved so much this weekend. We also know it’s a track that suits us. I’m always that guy that looks at things on the slightly more glass-half-empty side, but this is a track that suits us and in the past has not suited the Mercedes quite so well. Yet they were still very fast, and we’re going to go to a track that Mercedes have probably been the best at over the last five, six years. So, we have to wait and see. I know we’re bringing upgrades, but in Formula 1 it’s too easy to judge things over one race. You need to see how you are over a number of races and different styles of track: street circuits, hot tracks, cold tracks, tight and twisty, fast circuits. So, there’s no point getting ahead of ourselves. We’ve had a very good weekend, I’m very proud of the team, but I also want to make sure they keep pushing and keep trying to improve things, because we still need that.

Oscar PIASTRI: I think in terms of the result, very happy. Obviously, for a long part of that race, it definitely wasn’t looking like a podium, so to end up in third is a really good result. And as Lando said, the team has done a great job with the upgrades this weekend. I think we did a great job as well in hitting the ground running on Friday and then maximising things. And I think qualifying was a little bit harder to read. I think our impression after qualifying was that the others had just kind of maximised what they had a lot more, but we knew we had a little bit to find again after qualifying. But I think the pace we had today as a team was really strong, so that was really encouraging. Obviously, for myself, I think the whole weekend I’ve been just that tenth or two off most of the time, which has made life a little bit trickier than it should have been at points. But yeah, I think in terms of being able to maximise the result after qualifying, I think I did a good job today.

OP: Yeah, got a great start. Obviously, yeah, Turn 2 was pretty interesting once again. So yeah, I was obviously just trying to pick which way to go there. And yeah, I think our starts as a team have always been strong, and I think today was another good one. And then after that, the pace was strong. The first stint before the Safety Car, I made a few mistakes and just wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. But I think the second half of the race felt much more comfortable. I think the pace was just a lot better as well and was able to chase down George and obviously Charles at the end as well. So very happy about that.

OP: It’s going to be interesting to see. I think, yeah, as Lando said, we kind of need to see where we stack up at a few different tracks. I think especially in the Sprint side of this weekend, to have a one-two in the Sprint on pure pace, that was a pretty big surprise for us. So, things are working well. We expected the upgrades to be a good step forward and they have been, and hopefully they are again in Canada. But obviously Mercedes didn’t bring a lot this weekend and they also have an upgrade package for Canada, so we’ll have to wait and see how much that’s worth for them.

Q: (Sahil Kapur – NBC) A question for Kimi. I know it’s still early in the season. You’re now 20 points ahead in the championship. Did you expect to be leading at this point and do you feel yourself growing more optimistic that you can win it all this year?

KA: No, I did not expect it. And yeah, I mean, obviously we’re living such a good moment. But as I said before, it’s still a very long season and there’s so many things that can change. George for sure is going to be super strong in Canada, he’s always been very strong there, so he’s for sure going to be back at the top. But I think I feel much more comfortable in the car, much more in control as well. And I think we’re just going to keep trying our best. I’m going to try to maximise every time I go on track. But yeah, let’s see as well how Canada is going to be. Hopefully we can repeat ourselves like this weekend, but we’ll see also how the upgrades work. I’m really proud of the team, of the job they’re doing, and I’m really enjoying the journey.

KA: Oh, I didn’t know. I mean, it’s cool. It’s a cool stat, but don’t really want to think too much about it. I’m just going to enjoy the moment, but I know at the same time that we’re just going to get back to work early because obviously we have another break, let’s say, which is not ideal. But yeah, just going to try to prepare Canada the best way as possible in order to be back even stronger. But yeah, it’s cool, I guess.

OP: I think the reducing the harvest limit in qualifying has helped a bit. It’s not fixed the problem or all the problems, but it’s helping with one. The races are basically exactly the same, and I think today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and then having to defend and stuff like that. It’s pretty crazy, to be honest. At one point George was one second behind me and managed to overtake me by the end of that straight. And it’s just a bit random. The closing speeds are huge and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do. And obviously for the overtaking driver, I wasn’t that pleased with one of the moves that George did, but I kind of found myself almost doing the same move about five laps later, just because the closing speed is enormous. So from that side of things, not much has really changed. I think the collaboration again from the FIA and F1 has been good, but there’s only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. So some changes in the future are I think still needed for sure. How quickly we can do it is the big question.

KA: Yeah, I mean, not a lot to add. As you said, qualifying feels better, more natural. Races, the closing speed, as I said, is massive, and you also need to trust the guy who is defending because also with this active aero, the car is pretty lazy when you want to change direction, so you need to think in advance. And as I said, you need to trust as well, the driver who is defending. But it was a small step in the right direction and let’s see what’s going to happen next.

LN: I think they covered it well. It’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s not to the level that Formula 1 should still be at yet. I think we said yesterday still in qualifying, if you go flat out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still just get penalised for it. You still can’t be flat out everywhere. It’s not about being on as early on throttle everywhere. You should never get penalised for that kind of thing and you still do. So honestly, I don’t really think you can fix that. You just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years, that’s the case.

Q: (Sam Shephard – Autosport) Question for Kimi. Kimi, on the same weekend we lost a fellow Italian racer in Alex Zanardi, you’re both from Bologna. Were you thinking about him at all and his resilience while you were fighting for that victory today?

KA: Yeah, of course. And I think this race, this win, is for Alex. He was a good family friend as well, so it was terrible to hear that he passed away. And also, today I really wanted to win for him as well because I think he’s also such a good inspiration as a person for what he’s been through in his life. After the crash in the car, how he came back was incredible, how he was able to move on and create a new life and still succeed. So, for me he was such a role model as a person, someone who never gives up. So, I think it was pretty sad, the news, and yeah, today the win was for him.

KA: Yeah, I mean, today to be fair was not as bad. I think I lost two places, Sprint I lost six, so a little bit better. But still, no, it’s not acceptable. I think especially in a weekend like this, that the gaps are a lot closer, it can really change the race. So, I think it’s a point where also together with the team we need to, because yesterday, for example, in the Sprint, procedure-wise it was good, but just the grip level that we thought there was, was just not there. So, I think also with the team, but for sure mainly from me, because I’m still a little bit inconsistent, especially on clutch drop. But I still don’t have that confidence, being consistent with that. I still have a bit of uncertainty, so it’s a big point that needs to be improved. But I think today I managed it better than yesterday. Yesterday I was very frustrated and today I just kept it a bit cool, a bit better, and just managed to move on and focus about the race.